


Switch

by Sky_Cloudtide



Category: Fruits Basket (Anime 2019), Fruits Basket - Takaya Natsuki (Manga)
Genre: F/M, Hanajima knows, Hatori is tired, Platonic Relationships, Set Before Canon, Yuki has feelings but doesn't understand how to process them, body swapping, who knows what would happen in future
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:33:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24754822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sky_Cloudtide/pseuds/Sky_Cloudtide
Summary: Yuki Sohma had never spoken properly to Tohru Honda. She was a quiet girl with her life and friends.That was until they started switching bodies one day...
Relationships: Honda Tohru/Sohma Yuki
Comments: 2
Kudos: 35





	Switch

Switch

X

X

X

Tohru 

_Beep, beep, beep!_

She woke up, feeling extremely groggy for some reason, like her body didn’t want to be awake. She could see the curtains drifting in the early spring breeze and sunlight filtering through every crevice it could. She forced herself to a seated position; eyes blurry with sleep. She glanced at her alarm clock. It was 8am! Why had her alarm been set to that late?

She staggered to the bathroom, oblivious to the world. A splash of water to her face would take the heaviness away. That was one of Mum’s secret techniques. Perhaps she was becoming more like her mother, who was a notorious night owl. There was no time for a shower but a quick freshen up would start her off for the day!

She was grateful she had packed her school lunch the night before. She would have liked to prep dinner for that night as well but-

“Oh!” she yelped as she realised that her project was due during second period! But she had been so tired the night before she had fallen asleep during the project and her mum must have carried her to bed. That was likely why she felt so tired. There was nothing to worry about.

Tohru rubbed her eyes once in the bathroom and the trickling of water in the sink made goosebumps rise. Her body knew what she was coming. Cupping her hands together, she lowered them into the stream and threw the contents boldly at her face.

“Cold!” she cried. She paused. Her voice sounded much lower than usual. Did she have a fever or a sore throat? She felt ok, just slightly drowsy.

Wet grey hair plastered to her forehead, pulled back reflexively by long fingers that she did not have.

She took a deep breath, feeling panic rise up through her body. She lifted her head slowly to glance in the mirror, eyes finally focused. A striking male silhouette stared back at her, mouth and grey eyes widening, body tensing and finally: “MUM!”

She clasped her hands over her mouth. What on earth was going on? Was she dreaming?

She stumbled backwards when she heard footsteps climbing up the stairs. She pinched her arm but nothing happened. She was in a house! She was not in her flat anymore! She managed to fumble with the bathroom lock and secure it in time, hands pressing into the door, fingernails gripping in.

She was somehow possessing Yuki Sohma, a boy in her class at school and the most mysterious member of the class!

“You’re going to be late if you don’t hurry up, Yuki,” a cheerful male voice sounded from the other side of the door.

“Ah, I’m sorry for waking up late!” Tohru apologised back to what sounded like Sohma’s brother or guardian. She hoped she was not setting a bad example on Sohma’s behalf.

“Hm? This is normal time for you, Yuki. You’d better get going. And as always, watch out for girls,” the man’s voice was serious.

 _Girls?_ Tohru wondered. Sohma did not seem to have a girlfriend. He was always reluctant to become close with the girls at school. But Tohru was assuming so much about him! Yuki had a life and things she was not privy to know.

She would have to go about her (or Sohma’s) day and hope she woke up from this strange dream soon.

She hurried to get ready for school.

As she was about to leave, she realised she did not know the directions to school. She tiptoed through the house, searching for the man that had spoken to her earlier. After pausing behind a door that seemed like an office, she paused when she heard snoring.

She took a step back. She had always wanted to practice being more independent. This was the perfect situation for her. Determined, she left the house and located a familiar landmark in the city, heading towards that in the morning sunshine.

That was the first day ‘Yuki Sohma’ had arrived at school donning a perfect tie knot.

* * *

Yuki

Yuki’s day was not going as planned.

Quite frankly, it was a disaster. He was sitting in the last lesson before lunch and the impending awkwardness that would cause.

Because a very nervous and timid looking _Yuki_ stared at _him_ from across the classroom. Fumbling and dripping with sweat. He could not believe his already non-existent luck.

Because he had woken up as Tohru Honda that morning, a quiet and average-looking girl he had never spoken more than a few polite words to. He had woken up to a woman storming towards him, throwing her arms out without enough time for Yuki to move out of the way. And the shock of having not transformed made him breathe the only sigh of relief to escape him from the whole day.

The lunch bell sounded. Arisa Uotani and Saki Hanajima, Miss Honda’s best friends, homed in on Yuki like eagles while ‘Yuki’ reached an arm out in wordless confusion.

He had been thinking through this scenario since his shorter-than-usual trek to school.

“Sorry, I’m going to the nurse’s office. I’m not feeling too good,” Yuki excused himself from Uotani and Hanajima.

“Our sweet Tohru,” Hanajima muttered quietly.

“Are ya sure?” Uotani concerningly placed a hand on Yuki’s forehead. He was flushed more from stress than fever.

“Thank you, but I’ll be ok,” Yuki replied politely. Her friends looked at each other but he knew he had politeness in common with Miss Honda, so they released him from their custody without another word.

“I’ll come with you. I’m not feeling too well either,” ‘Yuki’ said.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the prince giving us a private audience,” Uotani mock-bowed. Both Yuki and ‘Yuki’ turned an even deeper shade of red he would have thought impossible.

“I’m sorry,” and ‘Yuki’ bowed. Uotani and Hanajima raised an eyebrow and glanced at each other. Uotani rose her fist but Hanajima placed a hand on her friend’s shoulder and shook her head. Her dark eyes gazed at Yuki’s. She stepped towards Yuki and handed him a bag he had forgotten about, used to carrying one on his back.

“You forgot this,” she said simply.

“Oh, it seems I did. Sorry for the trouble,” that sounded like something Miss Honda would say. It made Yuki’s heart beat a little less thinking he was not being out of character. It would be a nuisance to jeopardise her friends.

She inclined her head at him and murmured, “take care of our dear Tohru.”

He felt a sudden clenching in his chest. He watched Hanajima re-join Uotani and they both started laughing while eating lunch together. Friends. While Miss Honda was quiet and average-looking, she had people who loved and accepted her for who she was.

Realising that two complete strangers were standing at the edge of the classroom, Yuki gestured for the door. ‘Yuki’ nodded in response and followed him out into the corridor.

Yuki had the perfect place to go. On the second floor, there was an abandoned classroom he had learnt to make a quick escape to in case the… fan club were feeling particularly persistent. ‘Yuki’ followed him in silence.

Once he made it to the classroom, he opened the door politely, the other Yuki bowing and showering him with a flustered ‘thank you’. Yuki made his way towards the corner of the windowless room, locking the door behind him. He couldn’t believe he was asking this.

“Is that you, Miss Honda?”

“I’m so sorry!” ‘Yuki’ bowed. Or Miss Honda.

Yuki placed a hand on his chin. So they _had_ swapped bodies. He was surprised about how calm he was acting with this.

“And that’s you, isn’t it, Sohma?” Miss Honda bowed again, a little awkwardly, unused to the extra height. “I didn’t mean to assume.”

“It’s quite alright, Miss Honda. I’m just very… confused about what has happened to us. Do you have any ideas?”

If she mentioned any fan club rituals, he would grin and mentally door slam the world until he had recovered some dignity. Which would be a long, long time.

“No, I don’t. I woke up late… and I went to the bathroom and I think your older brother…”

“Don’t worry about him. He’s not worth your time. Did he say anything odd?”

Miss Honda made a thoughtful expression, “he did mention ‘girls’.” She then started flapping her hands in front of her, “that isn’t weird though! It was unusual and he did sound quite serious, but he could be serious all the time.”

“That sounds in character for him given the topic. Family business,” and Yuki smiled. A thousand secrets and he couldn’t tell any of them.

But…

He had woken up and not transformed when Miss Honda’s mother had enthusiastically hugged him. He had a hypothesis but wasn’t particularly keen to test it if he could.

“Is there anything else?”

“Actually… yes, if that’s not too much to ask,” Miss Honda fiddled with the school uniform tie. “I hear a voice.”

“A voice?”

“Yes,” her voice became softer, “I haven’t heard it before today. I wanted to ask… are you ok?”

Yuki nodded. His mind was complete. Even though he was in the wrong body, his consciousness, personality, memory and traits were all his.

Except for the cursed spirit, which was linked to his body. It was like having a backpacker on his soul, the rat spirit. Rather than being a part of his soul, it was a distinct entity of its own. But they shared a body. They were always together and he hadn’t known a second of quiet… a second a freedom.

That’s what he expected.

And a small, twisted part of him felt relief. No more burdens to carry. No heavy weight on his shoulders. No more suffering. No more tugging him to an individual he _loved_ and despised-

- _Get me out of this house please-_

And his headspace finally had a moment to be free.

But he suppressed that selfish feeling when he saw Miss Honda looking at him concerned.

“I am ok, Miss Honda. Are you well?”

He had to be careful. He couldn’t broach the topic. He couldn’t discuss the curse. He didn’t have any feelings for Miss Honda, but he’d rather avoid someone mingling with the Sohmas. He didn’t want to cause anyone else anymore pain. If he could keep her away, he’d be keeping her safe.

But that was nearly impossible if she was in his body.

“Miss Honda, would you be willing to trust me?”

She had no reason to. She had been incredibly open and honest with him. And he had to keep being distant and vague. He gently reminded himself he was doing this to protect innocent people from becoming messed up with the Sohmas. Make a mistake she’d end up regretting and hating herself over.

Yuki had become used to the pain.

“Of course,” she said earnestly. Without a shred of hesitation. She was confused and likely doubting herself. But she still trusted him.

He blinked and brought himself back to a rational state of mind.

“Can I have my phone, please?”

“Oh, yes, of course! If you don’t mind me asking…” she fumbled through Yuki’s bag and handed the mobile phone over to him. Yuki unlocked it and scrolled through his contacts, looking for the number he needed.

“I’m calling our family doctor. He has experience with neurology and cognition. He might have a scientific explanation for this phenomenon,” he offered, thinking of no better word to describe body-swapping.

Unnatural. Extraordinary. Different.

They were all words he was acquainted with well.

The dial started ringing when he paled.

“I don’t sound like me.”

Anxiety welled inside of his body. He took a calming breath. Miss Honda was looking concerned but he had dialled the call. He wanted to hang up. Phone calls were tedious and unnecessary if one could text or meet up in person. However, he would have to hope Hatori didn’t hang up before Yuki had the chance to explain himself.

“This is unexpected, Yuki,” Yuki felt less prepared when Hatori answered.

“Don’t hang up, Hatori. It’s Yuki, the first,” Yuki hurried out. He could imagine Hatori frowning, but the doctor thankfully didn’t hang up.

“What’s my favourite food?”

“Fish stew,” he said automatically. It wasn’t right, the opposite actually. Hatori refused to eat fish if he could get away with it. Nobody blamed him. But Shigure and Ayame, his best friends, couldn’t resist teasing him more about his animal spirit. They had decided on Hatori’s very irritated behalf that fish stew was his favourite food.

“I see, it is you speaking, Yuki. Do I really want to know what you’ve been up to?” Hatori sighed. That meant he was furious. His stupid older brother and Shigure could pay the price. Hatori, despite only taking the family members as patients, was worked to the bone. Excitement was the last thing he needed.

Yuki tried to explain the situation but found the words stuck in his throat. He hoped Hatori understood.

“Can you make a visit to Shigure’s tonight?”

“I take it Shigure knows nothing about this.”

“He probably has suspicions. He sniffs everything out,” Yuki still wondered how Shigure could be both charismatic and elusive.

“I’ll deal with him. I’ll be there at 7pm.”

And with that the doctor hung up. Yuki placed his phone back in his bag and handed Miss Honda her bag.

“Is that ok? I know it’s short notice.”

“It’s ok!” she said determinedly. “I’ll message mum. There’re leftovers in the fridge she can have… taxes are due today but I paid them at the weekend…

“I don’t think there’s anything else to do… oh I promised my friends we’d go and get some ice cream tonight. We never see each other as much anymore. I guess I’ll have to cancel.”

“The sooner we resolve this, the sooner you can get your ice cream,” Yuki smiled. He never realised how much Miss Honda was juggling. She was an adult in the household. Yuki burnt food and always broke the washing machine. He had always thought he had a few years to worry about learning those skills, but they were something Miss Honda had mastered. She had never been top of the class, but Yuki was beginning to understand why she didn’t have the free time to study.

“Thank you. And that’s ok. It’s nobody’s fault.”

‘Nobody’s fault’. That’s what Yuki said to himself. It was nobody’s fault but his. He was to blame. Did Miss Honda think that too?

The bell ending lunch made Yuki’s stomach swirl. “I guess we had better get back to class.”

“Yes. My mum never got to complete her education so she is very set that I complete high school. I’m sorry I can’t skip lessons this afternoon.”

“Let’s go,” _and get this over with,_ he added silently.

“Here’s some paper. So I don’t write anymore in your notebook. You can maybe stick the pages in,” she handed him some pristine paper as they picked up the pace back to the classrooms.

“Thank you. I don’t know her, but your mum was kind to me today.”

Yuki didn’t know why he said that. He felt it was important to say. It was true. He had felt oddly welcomed into Miss Honda’s strange household. Her mother’s energetic and hyperactive vibes had made Yuki not want to kill anyone before 8am.

Miss Honda smiled. Before they got back to the classroom, Yuki stopped still, “the important thing you need to trust me on is not to hug any girls today.”

Miss Honda nodded vigorously and Yuki pulled the classroom door open, taking a deep breath. Only a few more hours of this weirdness before things would go back to normal.

* * *

“I have no idea what caused this nor how to fix it,” Hatori said after he’d examined Yuki and Miss Honda.

“Do you know how long this will last before things go back to normal?” Miss Honda fretted when Hatori shook his head and took a sip of coffee.

“This is something beyond medical understanding. There’s an element of… supernatural to your condition.”

“One of my best friends can read waves. Could she help?” Miss Honda cried looking between the two adults.

“It might not be a bad avenue to explore. It depends on how many people you want knowing. It may be best to keep this between yourselves.”

“How can I keep this secret from my mum? She knows me too well. She’ll know something’s up.”

“Are you good at keeping secrets, Miss Honda?” Hatori asked her. Miss Honda blinked, surprised to be asked a direct question from the doctor.

“I don’t like keeping things from mum. But my friends are more important. I’ll keep the secret if it’ll help my friends.”

“That would be best,” Yuki agreed, folding his arms. Perhaps we’ll sleep this off.

“Be prepared for it to be a common occurrence,” Hatori warned. Body-swapping wasn’t heard of. As was a bunch of people turning into animals. The Sohma guarded their secrets closely. Yuki knew keeping this body-swapping dilemma a secret would protect them overall. Keeping the secret could keep them safe.

“I’d better take my leave, hadn’t I,” Yuki laughed. He hadn’t laughed in a long time. But this was such an absurd situation. The way they had discussed the matter like it was commonplace made him laugh. He didn’t know what else could faze him.

Miss Honda nodded, “mum will get worried if I’m- you’re not back by dinnertime.”

“You get to spend the evening with me and Hatori!” Yuki’s cousin, Shigure squealed. Yuki bashed him over the head with the bag, unbothered by the larger height difference.

“Don’t be so mean. I’d better be nice. I heard gossip today that Kyo ran away.”

“Who cares about that stupid fool,” Yuki hissed and turned to leave the house.

“And who said I was staying for dinner?”

“Let me call for a takeout, it’ll be my treat for Torhu- may I call you that? And for my favourite Sohma doctor!”

“I’m your only chance of staying healthy,” Hatori replied.

“Actually… I could cook something, if that wasn’t much of a bother. I quite enjoy housework,” Miss Honda murmured.

“I know you’re not Yuki but watching Yuki cook will be a miracle! Oh thank the heavens,” Shigure mentioned by Yuki rolled his eyes, opening the front door.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Sohma!”

“Yes. Hopefully under different circumstances.”

Nobody had said that to him before.

_Friends._

The word was strange in his mind, let alone his tongue.

He didn’t understand why, but he quite liked the sound of it.

* * *

It took two weeks for Miss Honda to find out. They had been in their own bodies that day.

They had been brainstorming in the empty classroom. During the week, they swapped bodies once or twice. There was not a set number of days between switches or triggers they could think of. They fell asleep and the next morning, it was potluck which body they woke up in.

They had no choice but to carry on with their days as usual. Yuki thought they were doing an admirable job.

Until he’d _slipped._

Quite literally. Unheard of for the prince.

He’d been planning on pulling an all nighter (if he did not fall asleep, then he hypothesised they would not switch bodies). Miss Honda had been worried about the strain on his body.

“It’s worth a try,” Yuki offered as he stood up but slipped on some pieces of papers-

-Miss Honda reached out to break his fall on instinct-

And moments later rat-Yuki was sitting on the crumpled piles of his clothes with Miss Honda apologising profusely.

He explained to her the curse. He spoke about hugging a member of the opposite gender. The physical strain. How his family had been cursed for generations.

And how Hatori might have to erase her memory. Outsiders were not meant to know. The Sohmas guarded their secrets closely.

Miss Honda had taken it all well. But she had become quiet, contemplative. That made Yuki worry.

When he changed back, he could hear Miss Honda timidly asking him something.

“Even if I have to forget… will you still be my friend?”

Yuki had to blink away the tears before they could form.

Hatori didn't take away her memories. Yuki saw the relief in her eyes. He was as grateful as her.

* * *

Yuki’s heart tightened when he saw a teacher calling for Miss Honda to take her out of the classroom.

Her best friends rushed out of class to follow her.

Yuki stared after them. Without thinking, he rose from his feet and hurried off after Miss Honda. The classroom whispered in surprise. But he was above their gossip. All that mattered was following her voice.

He stood helpless as he watched Miss Honda breakdown on the floor in the principal’s office. Still, despite what little power he had, he wasn’t going to leave her alone. Her mother would return and haunt Yuki if he abandoned her little girl.

And Yuki had no intention of doing that. Nobody would be left behind.

But after the funeral, matters only became more complicated for Miss Honda. The apartment she had lived in with her mother was sold and she needed somewhere to live. Her paternal grandfather offered to take her in, but he would soon be having renovations. Miss Honda refused to consider staying with her friends.

“I could live in a tent! I’m saving up money. I’m starting my second job next week and then I’ll be able to save up enough to live in a hostel… I’ve got a couple more years before I graduate.”

“Come and stay with me.”

“But Yuki, that’s putting too much on you!”

“I mean it, come and stay at Shigure’s place, at least until the renovations are done.”

“I can pay… and do the housework and cooking…”

“You’ve been doing that free of charge for months. The least that lazy dog can do is accommodate you.”

“Then… yes please. As long as I’m not being a burden, Sohma.”

Yuki’s face suddenly turned red. Before. She had called him by his given name _before._ And he had brushed past it, not noticing.

Miss Honda realised what she had said and started apologising repeatedly.

He started laughing again. In the time he had known her, he had experienced a lifetime of happiness in a short space of time.

They really were hopeless.

_You’re my friend. We help each other._

**Author's Note:**

> The mechanics of the switching work like in 'Kimi No Na Wa'. Let's say the switching started because two awkward beans were set to meet each other :)


End file.
